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Unsung Story fundraising continues on PayPal
Unsung Story developer Playdek finished its Kickstarter campaign for the game on February 14, pulling in $660,126 for its $600,000 base funding goal. Stretch goals for the tactical RPG are currently beyond the raised funds, but Playdek has opened PayPal donations for fans that want to change that. Donations won't be based on charity, of course - available rewards include copies of the game, posters, soundtracks, beta access and in-game content. The PayPal page states that the current bundles will be available for two weeks, after which Playdek will "change out the packages." Various stretch goals include a New Game+ mode, co-operative play, a map creator, ports to the PS4, 3DS and Vita and more. You can check the required funding amounts for each by scrolling down Unsung Story's Kickstarter page. As it stands, the game is being developed for PC, Mac and Linux and will be ported to iOS and Android devices. Final Fantasy Tactics director Yasumi Matsuno and Bravely Default Art Director Akihiko Yoshida are among the Playdek team, which estimates to deliver Unsung Story to backers in July of 2015. [Image: Playdek]
Final Fantasy Tactics director will get his Unsung Story
Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story Director Yasumi Matsuno's episodic tactical-strategy game Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians has been successfully funded through Kickstarter. The Kickstarter campaign earned Unsung Story developer Playdek a total of $660,126. While the successful funding ensures Unsung Story will release for PC, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android in 2015, the campaign failed to reach the $1 million goal necessary for a PS Vita port, let alone the more expensive milestones needed for ports on PS4 and 3DS. Prior to Unsung Story's launch in 2015, Playdek plans to release two digital card games set within the Unsung Story universe. The developer is also exploring the idea of cross-platform play in Unsung Story, but Playdek has yet to confirm the feature for any platform. [Image: Playdek]
Each episode of Unsung Story tells the tale of a different warrior
Unsung Story will launch episodically, with four to six stages per episode, designer Yasumi Matsuno says in a Kickstarter update. Each episode will revolve around a different character, but all of them are warriors in a great, fantastical uprising. Matsuno plans to launch with five episodes, making for roughly 25 playable stages in total. "The story of each of these heroes is what we're calling an episode," Matsuno says. "By joining them in their battles that span the course of the war, players will see for themselves if these heroes are truly worthy of the glory history has accorded them. While there are five episodes, each revolving around a separate hero, planned for launch, while the game is live, we intend to continue expanding various game systems and bringing out additional episodes that showcase these systems." There are three character classes in Unsung Story: warrior, mage and monster. On top of that, the game has five class types, each with its own leveling system: attackers, defenders, mages, healers and tamers. The game is turn-based and values speed, and it will play similarly to Final Fantasy Tactics, Matsuno says. Unsung Story has until Valentine's Day to raise $140,000 on Kickstarter and reach its $600,000 goal. That's 11 days away, for those interested in the campaign and those who need a reminder to buy flowers. [Image: Playdek]
Matsuno's Unsung Story shuffles handheld stretch goals, adds PS4 port
Unsung Story publisher Playdek has reorganized its Kickstarter stretch goals in response to backer feedback, giving the game's PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS ports higher priority over other previously-announced funding milestones. If funding reaches $1 million, Playdek will begin production on a PlayStation Vita port, and will hire on Final Fantasy 12 composer Hitoshi Sakimoto to score the project. Playdek additionally announced that a PlayStation 4 version of Unsung Story will be developed if funding reaches $1.25 million. A total of $1.5 million will ensure development of a Nintendo 3DS port. Helmed by Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story director Yasumi Matsuno, Unsung Story will bring its unit-focused tactical strategy gameplay to Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android platforms in 2015. Playdek is currently exploring the possibility of cross-platform play. Unsung Story's Kickstarter currently sits at just under $400,000 earned toward its initial funding goal of $600,000, with 23 days left in the campaign.
Matsuno tactics RPG Unsung Story seeks more platforms via Kickstarter
Vagrant Story and Final Fantasy 12 designer Yasumi Matsuno's new tactics RPG could come to PC and Mac if a newly launched Kickstarter proves successful. Developer Playdek says it will release Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians on iOS and Android regardless of the crowdfunding campaign, but the studio hopes now to raise $600,000 to turn the page onto Windows PC, Mac, and Windows tablets, then 3DS and Vita via stretch goals. The game's spread across platforms might not end there, as Playdek CEO Joel Goodman told Joystiq. According to Playdek's press release, the San Diego studio will also use the $600,000 to "deepen the content and add to its creative 'dream' team." With "Kickstarter funds and stretch goals," Playdek wants to bring in FF Tactics and FF12 composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, as well as translators Alexander Smith and Joseph Reeder of Kajiya Productions, who've worked on the Final Fantasy and Phoenix Wright series and Matsuno's Vagrant Story. Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians is due on iOS and Android next year, and it features a "completely envisioned Matsuno world" according to Goodman. The game is centered around the "77 Years War," a multi-layered conflict that draws inspiration from the wars of 16th and 17th century Europe, and the fractured rule of Saxon Britain. The game's name derives from Matsuno wanting to focus on the more ordinary heroes of war who come to the fore in the gameplay. As for that aspect, Matsuno has said we can expect Unsung Story to play somewhat similarly to FF Tactics, which he directed.
Console releases for Matsuno's Unsung Story may be dictated by cross-platform play
Yasumi Matsuno's Unsung Story: Tale of the Guardians features cross-platform online play, and that may affect which platforms it comes to. The tactics game from the Vagrant Story director is only confirmed for iOS and Android curently, but developer Playdek is definitely looking at other platforms, and their policies towards cross-platform play. We asked Joel Goodman, CEO of tabletop studio Playdek, whether or not that could close off the game from certain platforms. "It potentially could and it potentially couldn't," Goodman said. "We're not speaking [about] any secrets here, we know for some platforms that will be more feasible to do than on others. At that point, then, we'll have to look at it and say, well, what's the more important part here? Is it that we end up with a platform that has a pragmatic community, and we don't want to do that, or that it's well worth it because it's still a gaming community that we want to address and make sure that they get this product as well." Asked if it was fair to say it sounded like he was talking about previous-gen and current-gen consoles, Goodman replied, "That would be fair." Well, then.
Vagrant Story creator Matsuno working on digital game Unsung Story
After leaving Level-5 last year, Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story director Yasumi Matsuno is now working with tabletop publisher Playdek on a new strategy game called Unsung Story, coming to digital platforms. That'll include iOS and Android for certain, Playdek CEO Joel Goodman told Joystiq today, but he was keen to not limit the game to those platforms. At the Tokyo Game Show, Matsuno explained to us that Unsung Story will be based around nine small countries, each one fighting one another. Matsuno is taking inspiration from the Saxon Britain of the 5th to 8th centuries, an era following the Romans' retreat. As the name suggests, Unsung Story will focus on the more ordinary people of war - the footsoldiers rather than the Eisenhowers, as Goodman put it. As for the tactics-based battle system, Matsuno said Unsong Story will play somewhat similar to Final Fantasy Tactics, based around a small number of combatants rather than large armies. In contrast to having a story based around a main character as Tactics did, Unsung Story lets players select whichever country and its leader they want to at the start of the game, and how they work through the various countries. That sounds a little complicated to build a narrative around, but Matsuno said that despite the game's name, narrative isn't as big a part of the game. Speaking to Matsuno and Goodman, it sounded like much of Unsung Story is still in germination; I didn't see the game in action, and the pair still has to talk and agree about how multiplayer should exactly be implemented, for example (for the record, there'll definitely be online PVP). However, there are some concrete plans in place. A two-player digital card game set in the Unsung Story world , co-designed by Cristophe Boelinger, will precede the tactics game when it arrives in 2014.
Daily iPad App: Agricola is Playdek's great adaptation of the board game
Agricola is one of the most popular board games around these days -- it's sort of a farming simulation game, where you can take two turns every round, and then periodically get rewards paid off in a harvest. Playdek is an up-and-coming iOS developer that's mostly done card games so far -- they're behind the Penny Arcade card game, as well as the excellent Ascension and a more complicated one I really like called Nightfall. Now, Playdek has teamed up with the creators of Agricola and Lookout Games to produce this iOS adaptation, available right now on the App Store for US$6.99. The way the game works is that every round, you send out a family member to perform some task for you, including growing crops, bringing in resources or building fences for animals. During the game, you can add more members to your family, which means you'll have more chances to bring in resources, but you'll also have more people to feed when the harvest comes around. The game is complex, but the core idea (of building up your farm bit by bit) is strong, so after playing through the tutorial and seeing the process for a while, it's easy to start building your own strategies and plans. Just as with the rest of their titles, Playdek has done a great job here in the presentation -- the game's stark but beautiful music goes well with the theme of fighting just to have enough, and all of the title's various processes and features are clearly displayed with charming and iconic touches. The game uses a top-down 2D drawn style, which might not have been quite as impressive as a full 3D farm environment, but works very well in getting all of the information you need across clearly. Plus, in addition to four gameplay modes, there's online or offline multiplayer, including a pass-and-play mode which is always a nice. Playdek knows well how to translate card games over to iOS, and this title proves they've been able to bring that expertise to board games as well. Agricola might be a bit pricey for those unfamiliar (or uninterested) in the original, but if you're looking for a full-featured, well-made adaptation of the popular board game, this is definitely it.
Final Penny Arcade 3 DLC on Steam this week, card game coming to iOS
"The Beginning of the End" is the final set of free DLC coming to Penny Arcade's On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness 3, and Zeboyd Games has announced that it's arriving on PC and the Xbox this Thursday, December 20. The DLC, which aims to fill in the story between the first three episodes, will bring a new playable character to the series, along with new enemies and new spells to fight them with.As you can probably tell by the title, the DLC will set up the final game in the franchise, which is due sometime in 2013. This week, "The Beginning of the End" will only arrive on Steam and Xbox Live Indie Games, but Zeboyd says it'll be out for iOS, Android and Mac very soon.And elsewhere in interactive Penny Arcade news, Playdek and Cryptozoic have created a digital version of the Penny Arcade deck-building card game – it's coming to iOS this week as well. Penny Arcade: The Game: Gamers vs. Evil will be out on Apple's platform tomorrow for $4.99. There are so many different options out there to play with the Penny Arcade license that they should probably upgrade it to a nickel at some point.
StoneBlade Entertainment (formerly Gary Games) shows off SolForge, coming next year
Ascension is still one of the best digital card games on the App Store -- it's a deckbuilding game that made the jump over to iOS, and it's probably the best example yet of how to take a great offline game, and put it on Apple's touchscreen device. Gary Games is the original creator of Ascension (though they worked with a company named Playdek to publish it on the App Store), and they held a Kickstarter earlier this year for a game called Solforge. The game is a card-based followup to Ascension that was set to be released as a physical card game, with versions available on both iOS and PC. That Kickstarter was eventually funded, and Gary Games has just emerged from their offices with a brand-new walkthrough video for SolForge, with a look at the game and how it works. And they're also going through a name change, so Gary Games is now known as StoneBlade Entertainment. As you can see from the video, embedded below, SolForge looks great -- the main mechanic is that cards you play can be transformed by leveling up, which allows for a lot of great strategies around not only deciding what to put down, but how and when to transform up the cards you've placed. I got to see the game in action at PAX earlier this year, and it looks like a whole lot of fun. StoneBlade has said the title is due out on iOS as soon as it's ready sometime in 2013 (and I'm sure the company is eager to recreate the success it's seen with Ascension), so we'll look for it sometime then.
Card game Fluxx changes the rules on iOS today
Playdek has ported Looney Labs' card game Fluxx to iOS, releasing it on the App Store today for $2.99. Unlike most card games, Fluxx's rules are instantly understandable, because they're printed on the cards.In fact, those self-evident rules change constantly as more rule cards are drawn, leading to situations where the winning conditions also change, and a losing hand may instantly win at any time. The iOS version includes asynchronous online multiplayer for up to four, single-player modes, and "pass and play" single-phone multiplayer.
